Groups Suggest Rebates Be Given To Charities

Some University of Connecticut professors think the state's new tax rebate is one for the books -- literally.

As checks of up to $150 each arrive in the mail this week for many taxpayers around the state, the head of UConn's faculty union is urging members to contribute the money to a library fund.

The union is one of a number of groups that are urging taxpayers to use the rebates for charitable donations.

Gov. John G. Rowland proposed the rebate plan, and the legislature approved it as a way of returning some of Connecticut's budget surplus to taxpayers.

Critics have called the plan an election-year gimmick, but Republicans and Democrats alike have endorsed it. The state began sending some 900,000 checks this week, ranging from $50 to $150.

Carl Schaefer, president of the UConn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the rebate is no surprise in an election year. Nor is ``the governor's discovery that higher education is worthy of support,'' Schaefer wrote to union members.

``I suggest that we combine these two events,'' he said in a letter to about 1,300 members. Schaefer urged members to use the rebates as donations to the university's Homer Babbidge Library.

The library is ``central to and indispensable for the university's mission, teaching and research,'' he wrote.

Other groups are also promoting the idea of using the money for community projects or donations to charity.

``There are still many problems to be solved. People could make a statement by putting the money into something that would touch a youth or empower a community,'' said Joan Huwiler, a spokeswoman for the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

The foundation sent letters to about 8,000 prospective donors suggesting contributions to a fund used for neighborhood projects.

Meanwhile, about 2,500 community leaders and volunteers have received a letter from David Carson, chairman and chief executive officer of People's Bank, suggesting contributions to Covenant to Care, a statewide organization helping abused and neglected children. The organization is based in Bloomfield.

``The overall point,'' said Nuala Forde, a spokeswoman for Rowland, ``is that everyone is free to spend the rebate checks as they see fit, from giving to charities to going out to dinner.''